NASCAR 2013

Well, the 2012 season is finally over but with so many changes for the 2013 season, I figured that I'll get a head start on next year's general NASCAR thread.

2013 Camping World Truck Series: After a new low 22 races last season, NASCAR is looking to get the schedule back to 24 or 25 races. Atlanta has been removed from the schedule, which is a shame, but Mosport (the first road coarse on the Truck schedule since 2000) and supposedly Eldora is debuting. Apparently, the teams have to build totally new Trucks solely for road courses, so another road course may pop up to justify having to spend the money. Also, NASCAR has lowered the CWTS age limit from 18 to 16 on road courses and <1.1 mile ovals. Drivers racing in NASCAR before their even get their state driver license.

2012 Champion James Buescher was 'promised a NW ride' if he won the title, but let's be honest. Dude's married to his boss' daughter, he could have had the record of JWT and he still would have got the ride. Luckily, he is talented.

Childress #21 is open with the departure of Coulter (Kligerman here?, Gaughen full-time)

Blaney full-time for BKR?

2013 Nationwide SeriesSchedule-wise, the most relevant news is that Montreal is removed due to no shot of a Cup date. After discussions with Mosport and an appeal from the officials at Trois-Rivières, the NW series will depart Canada (temporarily?) and race at Mid-Ohio in 2013. Also, the Camaro replaces the Impala.

RIP NW Dodge Challenger.

2012 Champion Ricky Stenhouse is moving up to replace Kenseth.

Silly Season:

Bayne replaces Stenhouse in the Roush 6.

Travis Pastrana is supposedly close to a full-time NW deal with Roush.

Buescher most likely full-time with Turner.

Vickers full-time with Gibbs .

Sadler will be somewhere (Gibbs?) with One Main Financial sponsorship.

It's looks like there will be more regulars competing this year, so hopefully, it'll put on a better show. And hopefully, Bubba Wallace pops up in the party.

2013 Sprint Cup

The next generation cars are here with a positive initial reception. With these cars, NASCAR is hoping to improve aesthetics and improve racing. How annoying was it to see a team take no or two tires and drive away from cars with better tires because of clean air (*looking at you, 2 team*)? Hopefully, the new cars reduce that and allow for a more degradable tire. Also, all notes from previous of years are out the window, last time this happen was with the intro of the original COT back in 2007. Chevy dominated the COT races and it took Ford and Dodge over two years to catch up in COT testing and development. This time, it looks like Ford has the advantage. They've developed their model the most and has tweaked it the most.

During the cup race the guys from FoxSports Brazil did a great interview with Piquet. He said that he has two options:
- Another full year in the truck series with Turner
- Or something like 2/3 of the Nationwide season with Jack Roush Team.

So, he prefers to go to Nationwide, but he wants to get all the races that he can do from the start of the season. So, he can try to attract more sponsorship to race the full season. He seemed to be very confident that racing with Roush team he will be racing for win very often.
He wants to sort it as fast as he can but he don't gave any deadline to that.

Mosport (the first road coarse on the Truck schedule since 2000) and supposedly Eldora is debuting. Apparently, the teams have to build totally new Trucks solely for road courses, so another road course may pop up to justify having to spend the money.

2013 Nationwide SeriesSchedule-wise, the most relevant news is that Montreal is removed due to no shot of a Cup date. After discussions with Mosport and an appeal from the officials at Trois-Rivières, the NW series will depart Canada (temporarily?) and race at Mid-Ohio in 2013.

Yeah, I hope the trucks get a second RC date. Why don't both series go to both places (ie Nationwide accompany Trucks to Mosport and Trucks support N'wide at Mid-Ohio?

The West series used to have more road courses, since the western U.S. was always lacking larger paved ovals (and the series was better when it was for Cup cars instead of Nationwide, but I understand why they switched). For that matter, there used to be a few more in Cup, and the trucks peaked out at 3 or 4 in a single season.

The early years of the truck series were outstanding. Regional short track stars tackling a national series. It was great short track racing.

My 2 cents.
ESPN mentioned that Long will remain in the 70, but no mention if it will be full time and better funded. From the looks of it it's the same as this year.
Premier Sports will continue to air the Sprint Cup in the UK (even got mentioned in AS). Sport TV will also carry on airing it in Portugal simply because there is no one else.
No word yet if Motors TV will pickup the NNS races next year. This year the announcement came in February.

I seem to have heard that all cars have to qualify on speed, but as usual there are some exceptions in the rule. Is that confirmed?

My 2 cents.ESPN mentioned that Long will remain in the 70, but no mention if it will be full time and better funded. From the looks of it it's the same as this year.

I'm pretty sure they said she'd be in it for 20 races or so. That implies its not a full schedule at this moment. A pity really. Danica gets all the attention, but I think Long may actually be the better driver. She's given that 70 car some good runs and its basically 1 tier up from a start and park team

Gibbs said Busch would split a Nationwide car with several young drivers such as Drew Herring and Darrell Wallace Jr. He said plans also are being put in place for Wallace to drive a Truck Series team for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

After fans cast nearly 120,000 combined votes on NASCAR.COM, each series' Most Popular Driver was revealed. Danica Patrick and Nelson Piquet Jr. were chosen by fans in the Nationwide and Truck Series, respectively. Each was honored for the first time.

During the cup race the guys from FoxSports Brazil did a great interview with Piquet. He said that he has two options:- Another full year in the truck series with Turner- Or something like 2/3 of the Nationwide season with Jack Roush Team.

Just noticed this post: I find this. . .strange. For RFR to jump from one full-time team to 2.5-3 teams in one offseason is really pushing it. With Bayne guaranteed a seat with or without sponsorship and Pastrana reportedly working on a full-time deal, that could stretch equipment and effect team competitiveness. In this scenario, I will agree with gm that I would rather see Piquet return to a Turner Truck for another season, then if the offer is still there, accept the Roush NW seat (or a Turner NW seat. . .any competitive seat except for Childress, honestly).

The problem is that you don't want to race in Trucks for much longer than you absolutely have to. Truck series is not what it once was, and they days of a strong regular truck driver being considered for a Cup drive are long over.

Piquet should probably aim for a Vickers/Hornish-esque existence. Full-time Nationbusch with Cup appearances. He'd be fun in a 4th Penske or JGR car on the road courses.

He could aim higher, but I don't quite see him catching fire the way he needs to(I'm always happy to see other forms of catching fire in NASCAR). But maybe driving for Roush-Fenway would make a lot of us go "woah, look at that dude go!".

Just noticed this post: I find this. . .strange. For RFR to jump from one full-time team to 2.5-3 teams in one offseason is really pushing it. With Bayne guaranteed a seat with or without sponsorship and Pastrana reportedly working on a full-time deal, that could stretch equipment and effect team competitiveness. In this scenario, I will agree with gm that I would rather see Piquet return to a Turner Truck for another season, then if the offer is still there, accept the Roush NW seat (or a Turner NW seat. . .any competitive seat except for Childress, honestly).

Is it possible to run full time in the Trucks and still run any N'wide series the sponsor asks for/is available?

Piquet should accept the Turner truck deal, but try to get in the NW car as much as he can, like 8-12 races. He was supposed to do at least 7 NW races for Turner last year, but only managed 2 for some reason (it was the reason why I thought a return to Turner wasn't guaranteed).

I do agree that he should get to a competitive full-time NW ride as soon as possible before he gets stuck, but I don't think the Roush idea at this point in time was a good idea, for reasons previously mentioned.

Well, Karthikeyan went back to F1 after winning that award, so who knows?

I hope not....F1 is past. NASCAR seems to be the right environment for him, he is maturing as driver and his performances are getting better.Even the thread about NASCAR is much more friendlier that the others in this forum.

Kimi tried it, it's basically Villeneuve's only driving gig now... even Rubens Barrichello was in the Brazilian equivalent of stock car racing recently. I wouldn't be surprised if he does transition to Nascar as well. Good money even for finishing in midfield, recognition, closer competition but less dangerous than open wheel cars on ovals, stability. Why else would Allmendinger go there after his winning streak in CCWS? JPM went from being compared to Michael Schumacher, to comparisons with Jamie McMurray - yet he isn't bothered because he gets to make good $$$, have fun\enjoy the Nascar paddock and still win occasionally on road courses. Tony Stewart's IRL championship pales compared to his Sprint Cup titles. McDowell didn't even climb the entire OW ladder first. PSP managed to get better on the twisties in the process, even if she's still inconsistent overall.

Of course it is a problem for Indycar to keep losing their drivers like this, and that is regrettable, but I can see the logic behind "retiring" to Nascar.

After a tumultuous 2012 season that saw him drive in both the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series’ for Penske Racing, Brad Keselowski Racing and Red Horse Racing, expect an announcement next week that Parker Kligerman will compete full-time on the Nationwide Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2013.

And for those of you at home keeping score of those Horses Of The Apocalypse, here's a hint for you.

The Fourth one will be red.

John Wes Townley will reportedly fill Kligerman’s vacated seat next season, running the full NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule in 2013 with Red Horse Racing. Townley competed in 21 of 22 Truck Series races this season, finishing 16th in points despite missing the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. While he managed only two Top-10 finishes in those 21 starts, he showed dramatic improvement over previous seasons, sustaining only two crash-related DNFs.

He will reportedly carry his family-based Zaxby’s sponsorship to Red Horse Racing, driving the No. 7 Toyota that won twice this season, including the season-opener at Daytona with driver John King.

So, "my" boy Kwasniewski will go from West to East. Is that a sidestep, or is it some kind of difference between them? I'm quite green when it comes to the NASCAR-ladder really. I just became a big Kwasniewski-fan last year, and have seen all but one West race this year!

So, "my" boy Kwasniewski will go from West to East. Is that a sidestep, or is it some kind of difference between them? I'm quite green when it comes to the NASCAR-ladder really. I just became a big Kwasniewski-fan last year, and have seen all but one West race this year!

It's a sideways step in terms of the series ladder, but it's good move in that he is now associated with a team that have rides in Trucks and NW.

Two-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Todd Bodine appears to be out of a ride at Red Horse Racing.

Multiple sources say the team laid-off a number of employees today, with plans to field only two full-time Truck Series Toyotas next season. Bodine, the 2006 and 2010 NCWTS champion, finished 14th in the 2012 championship standings with one win – at Dover on June 1 – along with five Top-5 and seven Top-10 finishes. He appears to be the odd-man-out at Red Horse Racing, with his No. 7 machine set to be parked due to a lack of sponsorship. Peters, who finished second behind champion James Buescher, and John Wes Townley, who brings sponsorship from the family-owned Zaxby’s fast food chain, will drive the team’s No. 17 and 7 Toyotas in 2013. ﻿

Calls to both Bodine and Red Horse Racing seeking comment were not immediately returned.

(Small mistake in article- Bodine drove the #11.)

What is going on over there? From almost winning the championship one year, to scaling back to a level where ChickenBoy and his Daddy's money is your best alternative? Over a two-time champ who had an off-year. Jeez.

Feel bad for these guys, and the employees let go. Hopefully they'll slot in with another team. A team with some kind of aspirations.

I honestly don't understand how Red Horse cannot find sponsors. It baffles me. They ran pretty much naked this year, with only 'TOYOTA' on display.
The owners have great media and big company connections, their driver line-ups have been boss (Klig, Peters, Bodine), so what are they doing that just doesn't appeal to sponsors?

Yes, it's true. In Sprint Cup the cars are indeed regulated right down to the size and style of the door number and the signage and decal placement. Here are the officially mandated changes for 2013 to go with the new, more stock-ish bodywork.

The most noticeable change, perhaps, is the addition of a windshield banner displaying the driver's name... ala your various spec car driver invitational series. Huh. Also, placing your decals over your manufacturer's headlamp and taillamp decals is right out.

Hehe. I just asked @AustinPolen on twitter (he's the helmet painter/designer/tattoo artist who does Nelsinho's and a few other drivers helmets- worth a follow btw) if he'd be doing more designs for Piquet this year.